[IxDA Discuss] Wanted: VPs of Design

[Fredrik Matheson]

When a school turns out a great designer, that person is great at
designing. Making great design happen requires additional skills.

Courses that team design, business and engineering (etc) students
connect budding designers to new milieux and help paint a more
complete picture of how design and business happen. Domain-specific
courses like technology entrepreneurship, etc. offer broader insights
to the domain we'll be designing in/for.

In a corporate setting, your design – good or bad – is subject to
different forces than is the case when working with a small client.
Special skills are needed to make design happen here and they include
financial insight, negotiation skills, small-talk, meeting management,
building consensus and so on.

I've learned a bit about those skills from superb project managers.
They have a knack for finding the right people, understanding their
needs and working with them, even if they're far from friendly.
Through this I've seen projects change briefs, budgets be re-allocated
and staff added and removed without conflict, and the budget has
always been under control.

Not everyone gets to work with these stellar people. Most Scandinavian
and UK design companies have a staff of 1–7 people (1,2). Here in
Norway, a 10-person design shop is almost a powerhouse. Small studios
can turn out amazing designs but lack good (project) managers, either
because they can't afford them or because the owners won't relinquish
control.

I'm glad to see this topic being dealt with in BusinessWeek. Now if
only more designers read BusinessWeek ;-)

- Fredrik


(1) http://www.britishdesign.co.uk/index.php?page=newsservice/view&news_id=4854
(2) http://www.step.no/design/Future_in_Design.pdf